Tom Spears

Stories

When Jeff Skevington’s parents used to take the family camping in Algonquin Park, they needed to stop the car halfway and buy windshield washer fluid because of all the squished bugs. But Canada is actually running out of bugs. Skevington is now 52, and his windshield rarely hits bugs today.

A 38-year-old man working on an elevator in Orléans was pulled out alive after the elevator carriage moved, trapping him underneath. Paramedics ran an intravenous line down to the man while he was trapped in the tiny space, while Ottawa fire rescue specialists members cut openings to allow them to pull him free.The incident happened about 10:15 a.m.

A mill nearly as old as Canada must be sold if it is to survive, its owner says, since the spring flood has just washed through it, and through her hopes of creating a bed and breakfast. The mill on Brennan's Creek in Old Killaloe has been there since 1870.

Canada has become less competitive in science research as federal funding has been “flatlining” in recent years, says an expert panel appointed by the federal science minister.The panel suggests boosting funding by 37 per cent, or $1.3 billion.In recent years, Canada has fallen from seventh to ninth in world research output, passed by India and Italy

Internal Parks Canada emails show how the final
days of the search for HMS Terror last September
— ending in a discovery that should have been
pure triumph — degenerated into secrecy and
recrimination.

This winter, Postmedia’s Tom Spears looks at what makes our coldest season tick. It’s a series we call The Science of Winter, and today we grab a magnifying glass to find out why those tiny black dots on top of the snow are moving. Yup, even snow has bugs.Winter, the insect-free season, is nothing of the kind.

On Halloween, two Ottawa residents will be the first people to sleep in Dracula’s castle in nearly 70 years.Tami and Robin Varma won the trip to Bran Castle in Transylvania through a promotional giveaway by Airbnb.It will be the first time since 1948 the castle has hosted overnight guests.

Documents about the expenses for former prime minister Stephen Harper’s 2012 trip to India, approved for public release this year by the RCMP, have disappeared, and the Mounties believe they have “purged” the papers.

The Senate expense scandal fizzled out quietly Wednesday morning as the last two charges — expense fraud and breach of trust against Sen. Patrick Brazeau — were withdrawn by the Crown, saying there was no reasonable chance of conviction.

When international cancer experts warned last fall that eating some meats can cause cancer, staff at Agriculture Canada responded by attacking the warning’s credibility, government documents show.The warning on Oct. 26 came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization.

The latest round in Sen. Patrick Brazeau’s legal affairs took about three minutes in a Gatineau courtroom Tuesday before bring adjourned until the fall.He faces one charge of refusing a breath test, laid in early April in L’Ange-Gardien, east of Gatineau.

Gatineau police are investigating the
death of a 13-month-old boy at a
daycare, but say that early indications
show it was a tragic accident.The child
choked on food Wednesday at the daycare
centre at 272 Thuyas St. in the Aylmer
district, police said.

After deserting us without even a backward glance, the long-form census is back in our hearts. And Canada is returning the love.We showed so much passion for our census that we crashed the Statistics Canada website in our rush to tell all.

There’s wonderful news for a Russell family: Eight-year-old Gianna-Lynn Favilla has been given a new liver.The Favilla family launched a public appeal in February for a donor who would give part of a liver to replace their daughter’s badly damaged one.And they have announced that Gianna had successful surgery a week ago and is recovering in Toronto.

A man charged in Gatineau with threatening to kill his girlfriend has now been charged by Mounties in Montreal with attempting to leave Canada to participate in activity of a terrorist group.Ismael Habib, 28, was to appear in a Montreal court sometime Friday.Habib is already in custody on charges laid by Gatineau police in February.